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Shakespeare: The Puppet Show

As a lover of Shakespeare and puppetry, I was determined to see Shakespeare: The Puppet Show at the Victoria & Albert Museum, even though it was aimed at kids. Luckily there were several other adults in the audience without children, so I didn’t feel too out of place.

This short performance – it ran for only half an hour – was devised by The Puppet Story as part of the museum’s Shakespeare Festival, celebrating the Bard’s 450th birthday. It made use of puppets in the museum’s store (it has a considerable theatre-related collection), making replicas of them to serve as characters.

The idea was that the puppets all wanted to perform in a Shakespeare play, and were trying to find the right character for them. The protagonist was the Martinek Giant, a puppet with no history, but my favourite was Bones – a skeleton with a brilliant head-removing trick. Definitely a show that was aimed at children – but I enjoyed it too.